The uk has been described as a "cultural superpower"

Units of measurement[edit]

Yard, foot and inch measurements at the Royal Observatory, London. The British public commonly measure distance in miles and yards, height in feet and inches, weight in stone and pounds, speed in miles per hour.
Use of the British imperial system of measure, particularly among the public, is widespread in the United Kingdom and is in many cases permitted by the law.^[233] Distance, height, weight and speed are the most common examples of such usage. An example of giving one's body weight would be: 11 and a half stone (or 11 stone and 7 pounds).^[234] Body height is usually given in feet and inches.^[233] Distances shown on road signs must be in miles and yards, while miles per hour appear on speed limit signs and car speedometers.^[235] Imperial units (such as pounds and ounces) are legally permitted on British goods after the European Commission announced in 2007 that it was to abandon the requirement for metric-only labelling on packaged goods in the UK and to allow dual metric–imperial marking to continue indefinitely.^[236]
By custom and law, traffic in Britain drives on the left. Research shows that countries driving on the left have a lower collision rate than those that drive on the right, and it has been suggested that this is partly because the predominantly better-performing right eye is used to monitor oncoming traffic and the driver's wing mirror.^[237] The name of the zebra crossing is attributed to British MP and subsequent Prime Minister, James Callaghan, who in 1948 visited the Transport Research Laboratory which was working on a new idea for safe pedestrian crossings. On being shown a design he is said to have remarked that it resembled a zebra.^[238] Located in Birmingham, the Gravelly Hill Interchange's colloquial name "Spaghetti Junction" was coined by journalists from the Birmingham Evening Mail on 1 June 1965. In 1971, the Green Cross Code was introduced to teach children safer road crossing habits. From 1987, Mungo Jerry's song "In the Summertime" featured in drink driving adverts. The building of roundabouts (circular junctions) grew rapidly in the 1960s; there are now more than 10,000 in the UK^[239] The Cat's eye retroreflective safety device used in road marking was invented by Percy Shaw in 1933.
Cuisine[edit]
Main article: British cuisine
See also: English cuisine, Northern Irish cuisine, Scottish cuisine, and Welsh cuisine

The full breakfast is among the best known British dishes, consisting of fried egg, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, fried tomatoes, and sometimes white or black pudding.
British cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with the United Kingdom. Historically, British cuisine meant "unfussy dishes made with quality local ingredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavour, rather than disguise it".^[240] International recognition of British cuisine was historically limited to the full breakfast and the Christmas dinner.^[241] However, Celtic agriculture and animal breeding produced a wide variety of foodstuffs for indigenous Celts. Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques before the practice became common in Europe. The Norman conquest introduced exotic spices into Great Britain in the Middle Ages.^[241] The British Empire facilitated a knowledge of India's food tradition of "strong, penetrating spices and herbs".^[241]
Each country within the United Kingdom has its own specialities. Traditional examples of English cuisine include the Sunday roast; featuring a roasted joint, usually roast beef (a signature English national dish dating back to the 1731 ballad "The Roast Beef of Old England"), lamb or chicken, served with assorted boiled vegetables, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. The full English breakfast consists of bacon, grilled tomatoes, fried bread, baked beans, fried mushrooms, sausages and eggs. Black pudding and hash browns are often also included. It is usually served with tea or coffee. The Ulster version – Ulster fry – includes soda farl and potato bread, with the BBC's Simon Majumdar calling it the UK's best full breakfast.^[242]

Tea, biscuits, jam and cakes. Tea is the most popular beverage in the UK.

McVitie's chocolate digestive is routinely ranked the UK's favourite snack, and No. 1 biscuit to dunk in tea.
Fish and chips are also regarded as a national institution: Winston Churchill called them "the good companions", John Lennon smothered them in tomato ketchup, while George Orwell referred to them as a "chief comfort" of the working class.^[243] The meal was created in 1860 in the East End of London by a Jewish immigrant, Joseph Malin, who came up with the idea of combining fried fish with chips.^[243] A blue plaque at Oldham's Tommyfield Market marks the 1860s origin of the fish and chip shop and fast food industries.^[244] Various meat pies are consumed such as steak and kidney pie, shepherd's pie, cottage pie, Cornish pasty and pork pie.
A quintessential British custom, afternoon tea, is a small meal typically eaten between 4 pm and 6 pm. The most popular drink in Britain, tea became more widely drunk due to Catherine of Braganza. It is traditionally accompanied with biscuits, sandwiches, scones, cakes or pastries (such as Battenberg cake, fruit cake or Victoria sponge). In his 1946 essay "A Nice Cup of Tea", author George Orwell wrote: "Tea is one of the mainstays of civilisation in this country."^[245] McVitie's are the best selling biscuit brand in the UK, and the most popular biscuits to "dunk" in tea, with McVitie's chocolate digestives, rich tea and hobnobs ranked the nation's top three favourite biscuits.^[246] Other popular British biscuits include bourbons, custard creams, Jammie Dodgers, ginger nuts and shortbread.^[246] The first documented figure-shaped biscuits (gingerbread man) was at the court of Elizabeth I in the 16th century.^[247]

R. White's soft drinks sold in London. Selling carbonated lemonade in 1845, by 1887 they sold strawberry soda, raspberry soda and cherryade.
The first English recipe for ice cream was published in Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts in London in 1718, and arguably the earliest reference to an edible ice cream cone, appears in Charles Elmé Francatelli's 1846 The Modern Cook.^[248] The 18th-century English aristocrat John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich is best known for his links to the modern concept of the sandwich which was named after him. When he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread, others began to order "the same as Sandwich!".^[249] In the city of Leeds in 1767, Joseph Priestley made his "happiest" discovery when he invented carbonated water (also known as soda water), the major and defining component of most soft drinks.^[250] Carbonated lemonade was available in British refreshment stalls in 1833, with R. White's Lemonade sold in 1845. By 1887 they sold a wide variety of soft drink flavours. Irn-Bru is the best-selling soft drink in Scotland. Invented by a Newcastle pharmacist in 1927, Lucozade is the No. 1 sports drink in the UK.
Sausages are commonly eaten as bangers and mash, in sausage rolls or as toad in the hole. Lancashire hotpot is a well-known stew. Popular cheeses include Cheddar and Wensleydale. Sweet British dishes include scones, apple pie, mince pies, spotted dick, Eccles cakes, pancakes, sponge cake, trifle, jelly, custard, sticky toffee pudding, Tunnock's teacake, and Jaffa cakes; the best-selling cake in the UK. Marmalade is a popular British spread for toast or sandwich: a spread famous for its association with Paddington Bear, a beloved bear in British culture that featured in the critically acclaimed films Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2017).^[251]

An award-winning Victoria sponge from an English village fête. Competitive baking is part of the traditional village fête, inspiring The Great British Bake Off television series.
Home baking has always been a significant part of British home cooking. Influential cookbooks include The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769), Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845) by food author Eliza Acton that introduced the now-universal practice of listing ingredients and giving suggested cooking times for each recipe, and Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861). Home-made cakes and jams are part of the traditional English village fête. Filmed in bunting-draped marquees in scenic gardens, the success of the 2010s television show The Great British Bake Off (which was inspired by the village fête) is credited with spurring a renewed interest in home baking, with supermarkets and department stores in the UK reporting sharp rises in sales of baking ingredients and accessories. A popular cake to bake, Victoria sponge (named after Queen Victoria who enjoyed a slice with her tea), was created following the discovery of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843, which enabled the sponge to rise higher in cakes.^[252]
The hot cross bun is a popular British sweet bun traditionally eaten on Good Friday, but are now eaten all year round.^[253] Treacle tart was created after the invention of golden syrup by chemists working for Abram Lyle in 1885. With its logo and green-and-gold packaging having remained almost unchanged since then, Lyle's Golden Syrup was listed by Guinness World Records as having the world's oldest branding and packaging.^[254] Scottish cuisine includes Arbroath smokie and haggis; Northern Irish cuisine features the Ulster fry and the pastie and Welsh cuisine is noted for Welsh rarebit (often using Worcestershire sauce) and cawl. Brown sauce is a traditional British condiment, with its best known variety HP Sauce (named after and featuring an image of the Houses of Parliament on the label) a popular spread on chicken and bacon sandwiches. The Scottish Aberdeen Angus is a popular native beef breed, accounting for almost 20% of the UK beef industry.^[255] Cavendish bananas were cultivated by Sir Joseph Paxton in the greenhouses of Chatsworth House, Derbyshire in 1836.^[256] Named after William Cavendish, they make up the vast majority of bananas consumed in the western world.^[256]

Old Bushmills Distillery, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1608, it is the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world.^[257]
The pub is an important aspect of British culture, and is often the focal point of local communities. Referred to as their "local" by regulars, pubs are typically chosen for their proximity to home or work, the availability of a particular beer or ale or a good selection, good food, a social atmosphere, the presence of friends and acquaintances, and the availability of pub games such as darts or snooker. Pubs will often screen sports events, such as English Premier League and Scottish Premier League games (or for international tournaments, the FIFA World Cup). The pub quiz was established in the UK in the 1970s.
In 1393, Richard II introduced a law that pubs had to display a sign outdoors to make them easily visible for passing ale tasters who would assess the quality of ale sold.^[258] Most pubs still have decorated signs hanging over their doors. The owner or tenant (licensee) is known as the pub landlord or publican, while barmaids are a common feature in pubs. Alcoholic drinks served in pubs include wines and English beers such as bitter, mild, stout and brown ale. Whisky originated in Ireland and Scotland in the Middle Ages: Irish whiskey and Scotch whisky.^[259]

A Christmas dinner plate in Scotland, featuring roast turkey, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts
On Christmas Day, goose was previously served at dinner; however since appearing on Christmas tables in England in the late 16th century, the turkey has become more popular, with Christmas pudding served for dessert.^[260] The 16th-century English navigator William Strickland is credited with introducing the turkey into England, and 16th-century farmer Thomas Tusser noted that by 1573 turkeys were common in the English Christmas dinner.^[261] This custom gave rise to the humorous English idiom, "like turkeys voting for Christmas".^[262] The turkey is sometimes accompanied with roast beef or ham, and is served with stuffing, gravy, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes and vegetables. Invented in London in the 1840s, Christmas crackers are an integral part of Christmas celebrations, often pulled before or after dinner, or at parties.^[263]

Chicken tikka masala, served atop rice. An Anglo-Indian meal, it is among the UK's most popular dishes.
Chinese restaurants and takeaways (in addition to Indian) are among the most popular ethnic food in the UK.^[264] Chinese takeaways are a common sight in towns throughout the UK, and many serve a pseudo-Chinese cuisine based on western tastes (such as chicken fried rice, chips and curry sauce).^[265]
The earliest recipe for the crisp ("potato chip") is in English food writer William Kitchiner's 1822 cookbook The Cook's Oracle.^[266] In 1920, Frank Smith of The Smiths Potato Crisps Company Ltd packaged a twist of salt with his crisps in greaseproof paper bags, which were sold around London.^[267] Crisps remained otherwise unseasoned until an important scientific development in the 1950s. After Archer Martin and Richard Synge (while working in Leeds) received a Nobel Prize for the invention of partition chromatography in 1952, food scientists began to develop flavours via a gas chromatograph, a device that allowed scientists to understand chemical compounds behind complex flavours such as cheese.^[268] In 1954, Irish crisps company Tayto produced the first seasoned crisps: Cheese & Onion and Salt & Vinegar.^[269] The crisp market in the UK is led by Walkers (who introduced their own flavours in 1954), holding 56% of the market share.

Cadbury chocolate bars (Dairy Milk back of tray), circa 1910.
The Quakers, founded by George Fox in 1650s England and described by the BBC as "natural capitalists", had a virtual monopoly in the British chocolate industry for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, led by Cadbury of Birmingham, Fry's of Bristol and Rowntree's and Terry's of York.^[270] Fry's produced the first chocolate bar in 1847, which was then mass-produced as Fry's Chocolate Cream in 1866.^[271] The chocolate bars Cadbury Dairy Milk, Galaxy and Kit Kat, are the three best selling bars in the UK.^[272] Cadbury Creme Eggs are the best selling confectionery item between New Year's Day and Easter in the UK, with annual sales in excess of 200 million. Sponsored by Cadbury, the annual children's Easter egg hunt takes place in over 250 locations in the UK. Created in Doncaster, Yorkshire, Butterscotch boiled sweets is one of the town's best known exports. Created in Lancashire, Jelly Babies are among the British public's favourite sweets. After Eights are a popular after dinner mint. A stick of rock (a hard cylindrical stick-shaped boiled sugar) is a traditional British seaside sweet, commonly sold at seaside resorts throughout the UK such as Brighton, Portrush and Blackpool. A "99 Flake" (commonly called a "99") which consists of ice cream in a cone with a Cadbury Flake inserted in it, is a hugely popular British dessert.^[273]
Sport[edit]